


It'll All Come Out In the Wash

by mtwin



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Domestic, Gen, Men of Letters Bunker (Supernatural), Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:47:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23620309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mtwin/pseuds/mtwin
Summary: Just a short speculation on what the yet-to-be-revealed laundry room might look like in the Bunker and some of the different times it's come in handy for the boys.
Kudos: 9





	It'll All Come Out In the Wash

After the bedrooms and bathrooms, after the kitchen and library, after a dozen other rooms, they finally turned their attention to the laundry room. It's not that they were reluctant to get started on it. It's just that it wasn't really a priority when they first settled into the bunker. After all, having a laundry room was neither a necessity nor an idealized comfort.

On the road, stopping to do laundry is like stopping for gas. But with a home base, a _home_ , driving out to the laundry-mat seems like more of a chore. And they don't exactly want to be seen handling bloody clothes that smell like gunpowder and smoke in an area they're planning on staying in for the foreseeable future. It wouldn't really help them keep a low profile. And now they can fill up dressers with clothes because they don't need to be emptied the next day, and they have bedsheets and towels they are responsible for cleaning. (Though whether the staff at the motels they stayed in cleaned the sheets either was up for debate)

So maybe it was a little necessary.

The laundry room walls and floor were in the same style as the rest of the bunker, but with the handy addition of two drains built into the floor. Like the kitchen, it was made to accommodate the needs of however many people might be staying in the bunker at a given time. There were two deep, basin-like sinks with a drying rack beside them on one wall, as well as some large laundry hampers on wheels. Another wall was shared between cabinets and shelves lined with wire baskets. And opposite the door sat the dusty washer and dryer, with a sturdy table in the center of the room for sorting and folding. The machines were probably the newest model when they had been installed, but now they were well over 50 years old. The boys had a heck of a time figuring out if the pipes and wires connected to the antiquated equipment could handle a more modern appliance. They got a secondhand washer and dryer that were about as beat up and dingy as the clothes they washed in them, but also just as functional. One of the dials on the washer had to be relabeled with Sam's neat script because the original settings had worn off and, at some point, the dryer acquired a sigil on its side after Dean swore it ate every left sock he owned.

They used the storage in the laundry room like a linen closet. Extra towels and a simple sewing kit with spare buttons were stored in the cabinets. They put their stash of extra blankets (the ones not kept in the Impala's trunk) in some of the wire baskets, and white sheets for emergency bandages (and hunter funerals) in some others. The detergent (it never really mattered what kind, as long as it got out tough stains) just stayed out by the washing machine. Extra jugs were kept out in the open, under the table, so Sam and Dean would know when they were running low. Stain remover was always kept stocked as well. Dean ironically bought fabric softener when Sam teased him about his beloved memory foam mattress being paired with stiff sheets, but a replacement bottle always ended up in the cart when they ran out. Their sorting was probably a bit different than the average person's; they didn't do lights, darks, delicates. It was more like FED clothes, extra gory, and everything else. Sometimes, _maybe_ , lights and darks got washed separately. Laundry duty would ideally have been based on an organized and fair schedule, but it quickly devolved due to lost bets, won card games, favors, forgetfulness, and long stretches of time away from the bunker (and also Dean's many attempts to win a game of rock-paper-scissors).

In the end, they used the room more than they thought they would.

While Dean got a certain level of satisfaction out of chopping food in the kitchen, Sam found it was almost meditative to fold clothes. It was kinda nice to be able to freshen up clothes before they became unfit for human noses. And after a particularly gory hunt, they could just head straight to the laundry room to change out of their clothes and avoid getting the mess in their own rooms. Dean's dead guy robe was one of the first things Sam threw in to their 'new' washer. He wasn't about to take Dean's word for it that it had been washed properly. When Sam was sick from the Trials, Dean would throw a blanket in the dryer for a few minutes to get it toasty before draping it around his brother. Partly out of guilt and partly out of necessity, Dean took over all laundry duty (and any other chore he could think of) while Sam's shoulder healed up. Sam washed every scrap of fabric in his room twice after Lucifer finally left the bunker. Dean usually washed his socks in the sink after the dryer incident, even after Sam _helpfully_ replaced all the ones that 'disappeared' with novelty designed ones that said stuff like "SEND NOODS" with noodles all over it. When the apocalypse refugees were staying with them, the machines were constantly running. In the aftermath of Michael massacring the bunker, they used every white sheet they had for the mass funeral. After a run, Sam would throw his sweaty clothes in the large sink to wash later. Dean would complain about them every time, but they got rinsed and hung up even when Sam forgot about them.

They didn't hang out together in the laundry room like they had to at laundry-mats, they had the whole bunker to sit in after all, but sometimes, if one of them was sorting and folding, the other would join them at the table and lend a hand. If a few socks got tossed around as projectiles... well it's not like they expected to find the matching one anyways.

End

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


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